1. Field
The present specification generally relates to optical receptacles and, more specifically, to optical receptacles including a shutter assembly for cleaning an optical waveguide, and systems and devices incorporating the same.
2. Technical Background
Optical waveguides are commonly connected to other optical waveguides via a mechanical coupling that aligns the optical waveguides to enable the transmission of light through the optical waveguides. For example, the optical waveguides may terminate at a polished end surface. The mechanical coupling may be made by pressing together the respective polished end surfaces resulting in a direct surface to surface contact (e.g., glass to glass or plastic to plastic contact). The direct surface to surface contact reduces the magnitude of connection losses due to discontinuity between optical waveguides.
As the use of optical waveguides increases in applications such as cellular phones or small computers (e.g., laptops, netbooks and tablets), the probability that end surface may be exposed to environments with contaminants such as, for example, dirt increases. The need to ameliorate the possible contamination of optical waveguides due to dirt is becoming increasingly important.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative optical receptacles comprising a shutter assembly for cleaning an optical waveguide.